


Fifty shades of blue

by Menatiera



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Past Abuse, Language Barrier, Light Angst, M/M, Mer!Tony, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Telepathic Bond, Veteran!Bucky, empath!bucky, except he is a little bit at least, mute character, sort of language barrier, telepath!tony, the ARC-reactor is cool even while a really underused plot device, tony is not a damsel in distress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 07:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16676989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: "He had seen the grainy pics on the screen of a bruised and bloodied merman and had turned to Steve who had been there, god bless him. Steve had come immediately when Bucky needed him the most. Bucky had tried to lift his missing left arm, unsuccessfully, so he had pointed to the television with his right.“If that merman survives, so will I,” he stated."***One and a half years after its discovery, the merman was transferred to the Monterey Aquarium in California and a whole exhibition was dedicated to its presence.Bucky Barnes, secret empath, former soldier, and current marine biology student got a job as the janitor of the exhibition the same day.





	Fifty shades of blue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Merman Tony](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/434023) by Quietscribbles. 



> This is a WIRBB story for the amazing Quietscribbles, who created [this gorgeous art](http://quietscribbles.tumblr.com/post/180219952485/second-picture-for-the-winteriron-reverse-bang) for the bang and inspired this story. I hopw you like the fic! 
> 
> Thanks Kitteh for the nickname bubbles, which is the most adorable nickname I ever used in fic.  
> Thanks cpt_winniethepooh as usual for the brainstorming and enduring my whining during this process. You're a true hero!  
> Thanks lilianox for cheerreading and believing in me.  
> Thanks CinnamonAnemone for the useful informations and research help about marine biology and its institutions.  
> Thanks Faustess for the fast and amazing beta work - I can't really stress it enough how grateful I am and how wonderful you are for putting up with my antics!

[Prologue]

 

The merman was probably the biggest sensation of marine studies since the discovery of the Mariana Trench. Rumors said that it was captured by a lone fisherman, or a lighthouse officer, or maybe Captain Nemo himself. The official report, however, stated that it was caught in an industrial ship’s net  6.5 miles off the coast of California.

The official reports also stated that by the time the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took custody of the specimen, the merman was already beaten by several men on board who got scared of it when it approached them. The list of injuries included bruises, broken ribs, a torn fin and internal bleeding.

Academic papers often described in detail the kind of trials and experiments the merman went through, similar to those used on octopuses and dolphins to measure their intelligence, problem solving capacities and emotional range.

One and a half years after its discovery, the merman was transferred to the Monterey Aquarium in California and a whole exhibition was dedicated to its presence.

Bucky Barnes, secret empath, former soldier, and current marine biology student got a job as the janitor of the exhibition the same day.

****

[Night 298]

Bucky approached the tank cautiously as the last visitors were ushered out of the lobby by the security team –  there were always at least a few families trying to overstay, he witnessed it too many times to be angry about it – and leaned his back onto the glass tank ever so casually, pushing his back to feel the slight vibrations of the water circulation... well, if it were there.

Tonight, he felt nothing and frowned slightly.

He waited patiently for the noises to die down, for everyone to clear out of the room. No one hurried him – there was no point, really, when the only real complaint against him so far was that he looked like a serial killer and scared one of the night guards by accident. Which, really, wasn’t his fault, when all Bucky had done was walk toward him.

When things got quiet, he started to pat the glass in a familiar rhythm, and spoke up. “Hello there, bubbles. Had a good day?”

He was quiet enough that even if a human walked in on them, they wouldn’t really understand the words, but the inhabitant of the tank – well, that was a completely different case. While speaking, he slowly lowered the walls around his mind, letting sensations sweep through the guards, letting them grow step by step, size by size, until his senses tingled and his mind tickled with the new sensory input. The seemingly abandoned aquarium around him buzzed with life: by the time Bucky decided the crack on his mental defenses was wide enough, all the sea creatures felt like little fairy lights, mapped out in his head.

And the brightest of them was right behind Bucky.

_ Tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap. _

_ Hi. _

Bucky smiled and tapped back the same sequence while he focused his senses on Tony, dulling out everything and everyone else.

He never expected when he took the job here that it would help him hone his abilities, but that also happened. He came here to study a merman and write a thesis about it, and instead he found a friend.

It had been a wild ride for both of them.

Bucky turned around and pressed his forehead to the glass, glancing slightly upwards to Tony who floated a few inches above him - seemingly without moving a single muscle to stay in place. The light blue glow coming from Tony’s chest bathed them in soft shades, polar opposite to the harsh neon lights of the tank.

Tony’s shy smile always made Bucky’s heart melt, even without the psychic connection between them.

_ “Kids, noise, boredom,” _ Tony listed. His voice had a bit of an echo in Bucky’s head, with a slightly static undertone, even though focusing on Tony was really  _ easy _ , easier than anyone in Bucky’s experience so far. Also, Tony was the only who could actually  _ talk _ to Bucky this way. Bucky never managed this level of connection with anyone else before - not even with Steve.  _ “I thought you wouldn’t come.” _ The concern in Tony’s mind was so earnest, so true. That’s why being an empath sucked. Bucky felt the urge to cry just by  _ listening _ to Tony.

And Bucky was only five minutes late. He wondered if Tony would ever trust him enough to believe when he said he wouldn’t ever abandon him.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Bucky said, instead of conveying this fleeting thought. “But I’m here now. I’m always here.”

***

[Night 0]

His focus on the merman was never meant to become this much of an obsession. When Bucky had first heard of the discovery of a merman, he had been in an army hospital, high on quality drugs and in pain and  suffering from the  permanent shock of losing his left arm in an explosion. At the time, he hadn’t decided if he wanted to live as a cripple or not – well, everything seemed wobbly and hopeless and the pity in the nurse’s eyes and emotions had felt more stabbing than a knife.

He had seen the grainy pics on the screen of a bruised and bloodied merman and had turned to Steve who had been there, god bless him. Steve had come immediately when Bucky needed him the most. Bucky had tried to lift his left arm, unsuccessfully, so he had pointed to the television with his right.

“If that merman survives, so will I,” he stated.

Steve hadn’t hesitated, not even for a beat, as he nodded. “Sure thing, Buck,” he said. As wobbly as Bucky had been at the time, he couldn’t shield himself properly, so he had felt the sincerity of Steve’s reaction at full force, sprinkled with only mild worry and not a single ounce of pity. Steve had always understood Bucky better than anyone else. “I’ll set up a news alert so we’ll know how the merman does.”

As the scientific world reeled in awe of the merman news, Bucky did his best in recovery. While the creature had gone through experiments, Bucky had done his therapies – both PT and mental ones.

Checking up on the merman's progress became like a second nature to Bucky during the recovery process.

He had enrolled at a community college and started studying marine biology to understand the creature better and to have better access to in-depth resources. If the teachers noticed his obsession, they never mentioned it – after all participation in ocean-related studies skyrocketed since the discovery, Bucky surely hadn’t been the only one. Maybe not even the only one with as heavy of a baggage as his.

But Bucky had been the most dedicated.

When the news leaked about the future exhibition, Bucky decided he would get as near as possible to the merman.

Steve, just like always, had supported him despite  the fact that this decision meant he’d be separated again from Bucky, something they did only while Bucky was in the Army (and look how had that ended for him).

He moved to California, switched colleges and despite his disability, he got a job in the aquarium. Sure, being a janitor wasn’t as fancy as being part of the scientist team or one of the researchers, but Bucky was patient. He knew he’d get there once he made the decision. He started working the same night when the merman was transferred in. 

And being near the merman was more important to him at the time than any fancy job.

For a disabled war vet, being a janitor wasn’t  bad work anyway.

***

[Night 97]

He was utterly surprised to find a bunch of scientists standing in a small circle, discussing something in hushed tones. They ignored Bucky’s greeting, so he didn’t exactly feel bad eavesdropping on them – and it was spectacularly easy to do so while the scientists ignored him like he didn’t exist.

The merman wasn’t eating. More precisely, it was refusing the food it was given.

Bucky resisted the urge to scowl at them, and went to check the fridge. It had started to smell in the last few days anyways, but it wasn’t exactly his job to clean  _ that _ , thank god, so he just ignored it while changed his clothes and checked on his arm in the storage room.

Now he opened the fridge to investigate.

He wasn’t surprised when he found out the fish was half rotten. He scrunched his nose and closed everything. Damn desk jockeys were surprised someone didn’t want to eat  _ that.  _ Fucking idiots. Even the most basic reading about the creature would reveal that it accepted only fresh (preferably alive, or recently caught) fish as sustenance.

And someone apparently didn’t do their shopping and now the poor merman was starving.

Bucky clenched his only working fist, and contemplated for a mere second, before turning on his heels and grabbing his coat. There was a supermarket nearby. Not exactly a  fishmonger's stall , but better than nothing.

The scientists, thankfully, were gone by the time he got back, and only Stan the security guard had known Bucky left the aquarium. It would’ve been kind of hard to leave Stan out, since Bucky had needed his help to open the electronic gates without pinging their cards. Bucky didn’t want his little trip to go on record.

Once back inside, he marched straight to the exhibition, dropped his coat and the bag on the ground and examined the tank. It was open at the top, but that meant he needed to climb up at least twelve feet. It would’ve been absolutely doable with two arms. Quite hard with only one that functioned properly, though.

He brought a ladder instead and sat on the edge of the tank. “Hey, sweetheart,” Bucky greeted the seemingly uninhabited water. “I’ve heard you had a rough lunch. I don’t doubt they offered you something truly disgusting, based on what was in the fridge.”

He unwrapped one of the fish. “Hey, I don’t want to just dump this in the water, in case you don’t like it. This was the freshest I could find at this hour, I’m sorry if it still doesn’t fit your standards. But at least you got another option, I guess.”

Bucky shrugged as he talked, and he felt utterly stupid. He had no idea what he was doing, other than the fact that he didn’t want any living creature to starve, and especially not the merman. He paused for a few seconds, not exactly sure why. When nothing happened, he briefly looked around from where he perched – he enjoyed heights, and the good visibility they provided. He wasn’t sure if he felt like this because he had been a sniper, or he had been a sniper because he felt like this, but it didn’t matter.

When he turned back, the merman was within arm’s reach, poking his head out of the water curiously.

A shiver crept down on Bucky’s spine and he had to grab the edge not to yell. He swallowed and offered a shaky smile. “There you are, doll,” he said. His voice was more confident than he expected it to be. He slowly lifted up the unwrapped fish. “How do you prefer it? Should I give it to you or just leave it in the water?”

Yes, he read all the information about the merman, he knew everything humanly possible for a civilian to know about its habits, and therefore he was aware it had different habits different days and signed its preference to its handlers.

Right now, the merman was lifting its hand, palms open and upward, its eyes never weavering from Bucky’s face as Bucky carefully placed the fish in there.

When the merman closed its hand, their fingers brushed.

The whole world turned gold-colored, tinted with blue in the edge, and Bucky nearly fell down from the edge of his perch as an overwhelming rush of curiosity ran through him.

The rest of the fish fell out of his wooden hand as he instinctively lifted it to balance himself. The rustling of the plastic bag and the loud splash of it falling into the water startled both of them.

With only one stroke of its tail fin, the merman was already several feet away, and Bucky’s heart rate spiked up to high heavens. “Shit shit shit,” he cursed, quietly, and tried to grab the bag, but it was sinking too fast. Unless Bucky wanted to actually jump into the water and swim, it was already out of reach.

Well. “I guess that’s one way to feed you,” he sighed, trying to convince his heart to stop racing by taking deep breaths. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to scare you.”

He carefully climbed down to ground level, and watched the tank for half a minute, but saw no sign of the merman’s potential return. He flattened his palm on the glass. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I’ll leave you alone for a while, but I’ll be back later  when I clean in here . I hope you’ll be alright by then.”

He didn’t see the creature anymore that night, but the bag and the wrapping paper from the fish were on the floor in front of the tank by the time he returned, and Bucky quietly smiled to himself. At least the merman got fed, he hoped.

***

[Night 24]

“People are idiots,” Bucky grumbled as he wiped the floor. “My teachers are idiots. My classmates are so fucking stupid I can’t bear them. This college is a nightmare compared to the last.” It turned into a habit quickly, to talk while he was working near the tank the merman was kept in.

There were academic debates about how much the creature understood human language, and Bucky was more than curious to actually know the answer, but it wasn’t the reason he started talking. He simply found it relaxing, to pour out his thoughts unsupervised.

And he missed having someone to talk to - someone being there for him all the time, like when he lived with Steve. In this new place, he lived with a man who probably qualified for the official title ‘Human Disaster.’ Bucky wouldn’t be surprised to find Clint Barton in a trash bin someday, in all honesty. Clint wore hearing aids, sometimes ate dog treats if he ran out of pizza and Bucky sometimes sensed tiny glimpses of emotions from him that suggested he cared way more than he showed.

Somehow, Clint was also the owner of the college campus building. Bucky wasn’t exactly sure how that was even legal, but rumors said the guy had bought it from the college once and lived there since then - even though he wasn’t a student himself.

Anyway. Bucky missed Steve, and missed the way he had been able to share everything with him real-time while they lived together in the same room. Skype conversations just weren’t the same, especially not when Bucky had so little time between his courses and his job. At least Steve’s art scholarship paid him enough that  _ he  _ didn’t have to worry about a job.

Sometimes Bucky envied that, then he remembered that he would give up his college courses rather than his job, because as obsessed as it sounded, sweeping the floor next to the merman was still better than not being near the merman at all.

Bucky jumped a little when he turned and saw said merman looking at him, hovering near the glass of the tank. “Holy shit,” he said, “I didn’t hear you coming.”

Okay, stupidest comment ever. How could he have heard a merman swimming, especially when he was grumbling endlessly to himself?

The merman tilted his head to the left, and Bucky could swear that he had even seen a little amused smile in the corner of the creature’s mouth for a second, before it disappeared.

Bucky tentatively smiled back at it, then returned to his work, not grumbling anymore. For a brief second Bucky could’ve sworn something touched him – if not physically, then mentally – but once he tried to focus on the sensation, it flitted out of his reach. The quiet of the aquarium, filled with only the machinery sounds of water circulators, felt awkward for the first time since Bucky worked there.

***

[Night 312]

"I have a gift for you," Bucky said instead of a greeting. The last patrons were out and the lights switched to night mode. Bucky actually liked this better, when the main light sources were the dimly lit aquarium tanks and the facility started its nightly routine.

_ “A gift?”  _ Tony asked, puzzled but excited.  _ “For me? What kind of gift?” _ He swam ahead immediately, eyeing Bucky expectantly, the hint of a wide grin clear in the communication even before he allowed his face to show it.

Bucky smirked and started to clean the glass in front of him, doing his best not to look the other man hovering in front of him on the other side.  _ “Hmm, take a guess. I like when you try to figure out things,” _ he smiled into the connection as well.

Tony somersaulted on nothing.  _ “I’ll try, but give me a hint first.” _

“Hm, let's see. It's waterproof, despite the electronics. You can tinker with it.”

Thanks to their nightly talks, two things had been clear to Bucky: Tony loved everything science and loved tinkering with human stuff. Tony had more knowledge about engineering and electronics already than Bucky could ever imagine to achieve for himself. And of the two of them, he wasn't the one stuck in a water tank.

Tony was already beaming, thinking about his surprise, his satisfaction radiating at the clues provided. Bucky couldn’t help but stare at him, with his translucent tail and big, pretty eyes and gorgeous grin.  _ “Come on, show me.” _

Bucky threw the rag down, and he tried his best to keep his breathing and voice even. Tony, as always, was  _ amazing _ : beautiful and magnificent. Bucky was sure his constant admiration had became a solid foundation of their connection despite his best efforts to dull it at least. “Okay, bubbles. What do you say if I join you in there?” Technically it wasn’t allowed for Bucky to get into the tanks, but he hadn’t gotten into trouble for doing it yet, so he suspected despite the occasional threats no one really paid attention.

_ “Sure, come!” _

In this case it was their luck.

Nonetheless Bucky always asked Tony’s permission on the rare occasions he initiated this. Tony never said no, so Bucky preferred if he broached the subject first.

_ “First you guess, then you’ll have it. I’m a man of my word.” _ He winked at Tony as he started to undress, not wanting to get all his clothes wet. Bucky knew Tony was paying attention – he could feel how aware Tony was every time he got half-naked, even though Bucky couldn’t fully decipher those rose-tinted emotions.

The fact that Tony wasn't repulsed by his looks was a miracle itself, given the missing flesh on his left side and the scarring around the stump. Bucky always tried to rationalize the situation anyway. To a merman, all  humans were probably at least partially weird-looking in general.

_ “Okay, okay… a remote to something? I don’t know, just come on, get in, show me,” _ Tony almost chanted in his head, making Bucky’s grin grow even wider, only to be sobered by his next comment.  _ “Feels lonely without you here, you know.” _

Bucky sighed, and forced a smile to conceal his worry.  _ “Just a moment.” _ He grabbed a little box wrapped in a colored plastic bag. Not like he could wrap anything fancily with only one arm, and paper would’ve been ruined by water anyway.  _ “Can't make you wait long, loneliness is terrible.” _ It was just half flirting, and half being sympathetic, speaking from experience.

He threw the box in, then climbed up – he had practice on that front by now – and descended into the water without second thoughts or hesitation. He dove under to get face to face with Tony.  _ “Hi, sweetheart,” _ he grinned.  _ “Not a remote, but good guess. Open it – I’m short on arms to hand it over myself, sorry.” _

He swam to the surface again and watched from there as Tony rocketed himself to the bottom and grabbed the colorful box – warmed by the other’s excitement, since the water itself was a bit chilly. Tony’s emotions were all over the place, as he unwrapped and opened the box, revealing the divers’ wristwatch in it, a premium brand with all the fancy features Bucky hadn’t really had time or patience to read through. He was sure Tony would figure them out anyway, even though the manual (sadly) didn’t come waterproof. Well, at least Tony would if he were interested at all.

_ “I... I hope you'll like it,” _ he sent the thought, suddenly shy and nervous. Maybe it was a bad idea after all – why would Tony like this – oh god what even was he thinking...?

_ “This is amazing!” _ Tony interrupted Bucky’s thoughts before he could spiral down into self-doubt, and he beamed at Bucky proudly.

Tony's smile was worth all the trouble to find a good enough gift, one that could be useful, entertaining and certainly waterproof enough to play with. The way Tony swam, his graceful movements in his own element, and his enthusiasm in the end made Bucky's throat go dry as a desert.

_ “I love it! I want to use it right now.”  _ He put it around his wrist, already pushing the small buttons to see what those would do.  _ “I’m going to hide it during daytime. After all it’s for me, not the paying visitors.” _ Tony’s mental voice turned sarcastic only for a moment, then smoothed back into enthusiasm.

_ “It’s for me, right? You’re a darling.” _

_ "Course it's for you, who else," _ Bucky smiled fondly and sank a bit down to look closer.  _ "I don't see anyone else around." _ The feelings that came from Tony made Bucky blush, and warmed him up better than any exercise could. Well, the water was still cold – maybe too cold, in his opinion - but it didn't really matter anymore.

Especially not when fueled by enthusiasm. Tony joined him and put both hands on Bucky’s shoulders, pressing a spontaneous, sincere kiss on Bucky’s cheek.

Bucky made the mistake of opening his mouth in surprise, and promptly swallowed a good amount of water doing so. He kicked himself to the surface, coughing and spluttering.

Tony waited for him to breathe and feel better, not offering help, knowing already that Bucky didn’t actually need it in this case. He was just swimming close enough to rub one of his calves gently while it happened, and Bucky wasn’t startled at all. Usually Bucky despised physical contact that he didn't initiate – which was quite understandable with his ability – but with Tony it was... different. It wasn't weird, wasn't unpleasant at all. Tony was warm and familiar in a way rarely anyone had been.

_ “I’m going to put it on every night,” _ Tony chatted away.  _ “if anyone noticed it, they would confiscate it in less than a minute.” _

_ “If anyone wanna take it from you, I'm gonna fight them. It's yours. Though, yeah, I get that it would be hard to explain where you found it.” _

Bucky instinctively reached out to hold onto Tony, and before he could correct the movement, he was hugging Tony, and stared at Tony's eyes and... He swallowed and tried to calm down his heartbeat, still vivid from the earlier accident, and now drumming against his ribcage for a totally different reason. “ _ Hi,” _ he breathed out, dumb and hoarse, and wanted to smack himself in the head immediately, but his anxiety was erased by the spike of joy that came from Tony due to their proximity.

Tony wrapped both arms around Bucky, seemingly not giving a shit about the missing limb in their equation, and even let his tail curl around, and Bucky relaxed in the touch, going almost boneless knowing Tony would make sure he wouldn’t drown.

The connection between them radiated calm and trust and Bucky loved that – he bathed in it more enthusiastically than he swimmed in the literal water they were in.

He felt the urge to purr or do something equally embarrassing as he snuggled closer to Tony. He couldn't help it – both his physical closeness and the emotional flow between them through the mental connection made him want to cuddle, to comfort. It was sweet and all, until it became alarming. And it always did sooner or later, when he realized again and again that this feeling had no end to it.

The longing for something warm and familiar was limitless, the need to offer  _ more and more and more _ was a pit without a bottom. Bucky was not sure which one of them started it, and which one of them continued, and where it came from and where  this path led, but it seemed like they just tossed it back and forth between each other and it escalated until one of them put a stop to it and raised a bit on his mental defenses. Only madness lay on that route otherwise, and Bucky was responsible enough to recognize that – even if it almost hurt physically to separate himself even a small amount from Tony.

Tony didn’t protest, though, just accepted the walls and untangled himself and even chuckled at Bucky’s declaration.  _ “It won’t be necessary,” _ he promised.

***

[Night 38]

Bucky spent as much time in the room with merman as possible. He usually started there, then hastily did the other exhibitions as well, not minding that his work there was sloppy at best - and then returned. Apparently the rushed cleaning in the other rooms didn’t bother anyone else either, because it’d been a month and no one complained so far.

The merman exhibition was sparkly clean all the time. Bucky would’ve washed the ceiling too if he had one more arm, because as fancy as his prosthesis was, it didn’t give him the ability to climb up and grab things or balance himself out properly in heights. He wasn’t  _ clumsy _ , but his physical therapist always warned him to be  _ more careful _ than necessary and climbing on top of water tanks to stretch upwards and wash a ceiling was probably not the epitome of  _ carefulness. _

So Bucky stayed on the ground, when he could help it.

Mostly.

He still talked to himself, and from time to time, Bucky still felt that gentle nudge at the edge of his perception, too soon gone to be able to identify it or go after it, but after the umpteenth time he had to admit it must be real. He couldn’t simply imagine something so many times.

It drove him crazy.

But not more than the merman itself. The creature often swam up on him, hovering above him at the edge of its tank, watching Bucky expectantly. He never saw it coming: he always turned only to see it already there, small smile on its face that disappeared immediately as soon as Bucky noticed.

Bucky tried to smile back, he tried to frown at it, he tried to back away – to no avail. The reaction was all the same – the disappearance of the smile (if it was there in the first place anyway – Bucky sometimes wasn’t all that sure) and the curious hovering.

This particular day, Bucky stepped closer instead of back, slow and careful, watching the merman for signs of discomfort. “It’s okay, I’m not a threat I promise,” Bucky said, “I’m just…” He wasn’t sure how to finish this sentence. ‘I’m just a little bit obsessed with you?’ didn’t sound good, not even in his head.

He carefully placed his only hand on the glass, and the merman lowered himself to be more or less at his level. “I just want to be your friend,” Bucky finished, after a minute or two.

The merman didn’t place its palm on the glass, like in a movie, and it didn’t seem particularly eager to declare anything of the sort in reply. With a strong jab of its enormous tail fin, it scuttled away from the glass and disappeared among the cliffs at the bottom of the tank.

Bucky sighed. “Okay, doll, I’m not  _ that _ ugly.” But he returned to cleaning and talking to himself anyway.

***

[Night 76]

Bucky wasn’t happy to find a man standing in front of the merman’s tank. And he was extremely pissed when, stepping closer, he heard said man scowling, “You’re here for the money, scum, so show yourself or I’ll—”

Bucky wasn’t intimidated by the threat. He cleared his throat while he walked closer. The man in the suit turned around.

He was a few inches taller than Bucky, built more robustly with broad shoulders and stout limbs, but had a bit of a belly and the stance of a man who spent his life behind a desk.

“Excuse me, sir,” Bucky said, as polite as he could muster, “I must ask you to leave. The Aquarium is closed.” He saw the corner of a card peeking out of the man’s pocket, which meant he wasn’t a visitor but belonged here, but he decided to ignore it.

“I can stay as long as I wish,” the man said, not exactly impolite, but definitely annoyed.

Bucky smiled wider and stepped closer, right into the other man’s personal space.  The close proximity probably made him more uncomfortable than the other guy, but the shock on the man’s face still worth it. “Sir, the Aquarium is closed,” he repeated, “I’ll have to call the security to escort you out.”

“I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” the man grimaced. “I’m not sure I can say the same about you.”

Bucky lifted his mop a little bit higher, shifting his grip to handle it better, to hold it not just as a tool but also as a potential weapon.  Before his military tours, Bucky was neither short-tempered nor paranoid, but with PTSD and all that jazz, he had much less patience for assholes, and more  awareness of  possible aggression.

“I’m afraid these floors won’t wash themselves. I ask for the third time, sir, for you to please leave before I call security.”

He got lucky.

“This is my place!” the guy growled and shouldered past Bucky, jostling him as he passed - but he left, thankfully. Bucky faintly heard him mutter under his breath, “Peasant.”

Bucky was proud of himself for not throwing a rag after him.

As soon as he was absolutely sure the guy wasn’t about to come back, he slumped and leaned on the glass of the merman’s tank.

“Fuck.” He focused solely on his breathing for a while, finally allowing himself to acknowledge the pounding of his heart. “I hope he didn’t bother you much, doll,” he said, without looking up, not like he expected any kind of answer of course. “You deserve some rest at the end of the day too.”

His hand didn’t shake – it never shook. But he felt the uneasy quivering  _ inside _ instead, a certain restlessness he couldn’t shake off. The adrenaline flowed his bloodstream, fuelled by the anxiety of the argument with (no doubt about it) one of his superiors.

Speaking of...

He pulled out his phone and looked up the aquarium’s website, went to the page where the workers’ profiles were. (He remembered how much he’d hated that they took his picture to display it on the site like a mugshot or whatever. But anything for the job, right?)

Bucky scrolled through a few categories before he found the photo of the man he had argued with – though slightly younger on the screen and with a pleasant smile.

Bucky swallowed hard a few times and hit his head to the glass repeatedly as he slid the phone back in his pocket.

Of course. Of course he picked on Obadiah Stane, head of the merman exhibit management, his current boss.  _ Of-fucking-course. _

He should channel his inner Steve with art or something, instead of challenging people way out of his league.

Too late.

That night, Bucky felt a gaze on him and tried his best to convince himself he was just imagining it out of paranoia.

***

[Night 52]

Bucky was sitting on the floor, leaning to the merman’s tank glass, knees up and hyperventilating.

It had been a shitty day so far and on top of everything, one of the nightly security guards gave him a shoulder pat at the wrong moment. Not only was Bucky startled by it, but his mental defenses weren’t up high enough either. The tips of Stan’s fingers brushed against Bucky’s neck, and that short-lived physical contact was enough to  _ sense _ and Bucky had trouble dealing with his own shit, especially on bad days, he really didn’t needed the midlife crisis of someone else too.

So he ran here and lowered himself to the ground and he tried to breathe.

“Shit shit  _ shit _ .” He pressed his forehead to his knees. “Shit.”

There was a tap behind him.

Bucky jumped and rolled over, making sure to do it on his side instead of his back, to avoid his spine and skull touching the ground. His heart pounded in his chest and his right hand pawed at the empty air as he tried to draw a gun, a knife, any sort of weapon. He clambered up to his feet, looking around wildly from behind his hair, trying to ignore the fact that the locks limited some of his vision – and how crappy a tactical decision it was to wear his hair like this - he should at least tie it into a ponytail or something – no wonder someone was able to sneak up on him…

There wasn’t any human in the room but him.

The merman’s hand was still raised like it had been ready to tap again on the glass before it was scared by Bucky’s sudden reaction.

Bucky stared at the merman. His stomach clenched and his teeth clattered from the adrenaline rush.

The creature slowly lowered his hand. Bucky bit his lip as his heart rate started to normalize and he lowered his hand too – he wasn’t sure when he lifted it into a defensive position.

“You scared me, doll,” he said, as evenly as he could. Admitting the obvious was still better than snapping at the poor thing. How could it have known not to startle someone having a panic attack?

Though it actually worked: staring at the creature had become ordinary by now – an activity deeply rooted in his life here, without any real connection to the war or anything similar – but still held enough extraordinary push to distract Bucky from his previous stupor.

The merman swam a bit to the left, then a bit to the right, but stayed close to the glass during the whole time. Its expression seemed to convey concern.

Bucky rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m alright. Just some… some bad memories, you know?” He stepped closer. The merman didn’t shy away, just looked at him, motionless now except the gills on his neck. Bucky rubbed his face again. “I was a soldier,” he waved the prosthetic hand, demonstrating what it cost. “I still have bad days. My therapist says it’s okay. I’m not that sure.” He was standing two steps away from the glass now and used the opportunity to take a good look.

The merman usually seemed tall because it rarely descended to the level of the visitors, always made sure to be a bit above of them. (This habit was observed in many studies and was mostly referred to as predatory behavior.) But now that they were at the same level, it turned out the creature was actually a few inches shorter than Bucky. Of course, he knew this already – the scientists took measurements of the merman first thing after they captured it – but it was shocking to actually  _ witness _ and perceive it in real life.

The merman was almost thin. It was muscular, sure, but in an agile and lithe way. Bucky wasn’t sure how the aerodynamics of swimming exactly worked with a half human, half fish creature, but was ready to bet his other hand the merman could swim  _ fast _ … once he got the chance. Its tank, while it was admittedly large, wasn’t even among the largest ones in the aquarium, and certainly not huge enough to gain full momentum.

Well, not with amazing tail fin like that. It was actually almost twice the size of the human part, spreading out like a flag in its glorious red colors, veins showing in soft golden shade from underneath the skinfold and popping out from the smoothness of the membrane. (To the utter surprise of the scientific community, the merman’s blood had been golden-colored from the start if spilled underwater, but turned closer to red if it happened on land. Bucky read some papers about it, but still had a hard time figuring out the chemistry.)

Bucky was completely calm now, watching the merman from a few feet away. He even smiled a bit, shy and tentative.

While the fish scales were bright and colorful, mostly in the shades of red, the merman’s torso and skin seemed pale in comparison. Bucky was sure he could count its ribs if he could run his hand over its chest – despite the fact the merman was quite muscular, a fact that became most obvious when it came to its arms.

But what kept the scientists the most excited sat in the dead center of the creature’s chest, a bright and soft blue glow that they were unable to touch. Something was  _ in _ the merman’s chest, something that emitted electronic signals almost too subtle for instruments to pick up, something that was clearly an outcome of a highly advanced technical knowledge. And something that, clearly, protected itself, because no hand or instrument was able to get close to it, hitting an invisible barricade whenever they tried to study the thing.

Bucky’s eyes lingered on the chest piece for just a few seconds, but enough for the merman to notice. Or at least that’s what Bucky assumed indicated it to turn around, ready to leave again… Bucky didn’t want it to leave.

“You’re like me?” he called after it. “With that thing? Did you have… did something happened to you before?”

The merman halted.

Bucky’s heart drummed again, only this time for a completely different reason. This reaction suggested the merman  _ understood _ the human language. English, at least.

That, or it was just a lucky coincidence. Not like Bucky had laboratory conditions and permission to test the theory – and even if he had, what could he do that the scientists didn’t try already?

The merman glanced back at Bucky, and Bucky waved his wooden prosthetic again. “My arm was gone, and I got this to replace it as much as possible. Not working very well, but at least I don’t freak out kids with an obviously missing limb.” He smiled, tight around the edges, and the merman stayed in place. “Your chest. I was wondering what could’ve happened. Maybe you were attacked. Maybe you had an accident. But I like to imagine that thing as something that is in there for you, to help you.”

The creature studied him for a while, and Bucky felt it again – the familiar touch, but this time the sensation was more defined. Maybe because he just strengthened his defenses after what happened with Stan, terrified by the chance of it happening yet again. It took maybe ten or twelve seconds before the feeling disappeared.

The merman smiled at him, quick and bright and gorgeous, and then it disappeared again behind the rocks.

Bucky shook his head and sighed and prepared to get to work.

***

[Night 207]

_ “Why didn’t you want to swim with me?” _ Tony didn’t sound accusatory, but he was still hurt, and Bucky couldn’t forgive himself for that. He never intended to harm him, quite the opposite. He tried to respect boundaries that were, apparently, nonexistent at the time. On Tony’s side, at least.

“I wasn’t sure I would’ve been fully welcomed there,” he tried to explain nonetheless.

_ “But I invited you,” _ Tony said.

“Yes. And I wasn’t sure if you’d regret it once I was there.”

Tony seemed to think this through, and Bucky was grateful for it. It sounded like a stupid reason in the light of the events afterwards, no matter how logical it seemed at the time.

_ “But you’re living with people. You don’t mind living with them. Is it because they’re humans and I’m not?” _

It stung, for both of them, and Bucky hastily shook his head. “No, bubbles, no. First of all, I’ve only lived with Steve.” It was a mistake, he sensed it immediately, as Tony’s defenses snapped into place, and Bucky swore internally, but he had to finish. “Secondly, it wasn’t  _ me _ I was worried about. I knew then and I still know that I’d love swimming with you. But it’s not my home and not my personal space, it’s not me who has to be sure of the invitation.”

Tony opened up a little bit again.  _ “You’re living with Clint now.” _

Bucky laughed.  _ “Not out of choice, believe me. Clint’s a mess. Not exactly a flatmate you dream of.” _

_ “You like him,”  _ Tony observed, and the thing that he conveyed was mostly amusement.

_ “… yes,” _ Bucky answered after a pause,  _ “but don’t derail the conversation.” _

_ “You always talk about how I need to trust you and what you say,” _ Tony finally started.  _ “You say that you’ll stand by your word and that—” _ he cut himself off abruptly.  _ “But when I invited you, you didn’t believe me.” _

Bucky’s heart sank, and he thought he finally understood how deep the roots of this hurt ran in Tony. He never asked anything of Bucky, and yet Bucky wasn’t able to meet even those almost painfully low standards.

_ “I’m sorry, Tony,” _ he whispered, both mentally and out loud.  _ “I won’t make that mistake again.” _

Tony shoot up from the bottom of the tank.  _ “Say I believe you,” _ he challenged,  _ “then prove it! Come and play with me here!” _

Bucky smiled. “One more problem, sweetheart. It’s still my workplace and they’ll fire me if I just go and take a bath instead of working.” He didn’t even take a breath between two sentences as he continued immediately, not giving Tony a chance to get upset. “Give me time - till tomorrow - to arrange the circumstances, okay?”

_ “Circumstances?”  _ Tony asked skeptically.

_ “I’ll talk with someone so they’ll look away and we will have our time undisturbed,” _ Bucky promised.

***

[Night 113]

“Why people are fucking idiots, especially my classmates – a study by J. B. Barnes”

Bucky sighed and crossed out the hypothetical title with two strong lines. “C’mon, man, get a grip,” he muttered to himself. (After all, if he wasn’t making arm puns at his own expense, then who should? Steve, sadly, still wasn’t here to provide, the heathen.)

“Conditioned behavioral patterns of captive hammerhead sharks in a marine environment,”  he tried this time, then crossed it out too.

“Yeah, great title for a high school project. What the fuck is not a marine environment, Barnes? We’re in a fucking aquarium, it’s not like they can survive on land.”

He loved that he could be as loud as he wanted, perks of a nightshift. He was familiar enough with the security guards’ schedule not to run into them unless he wanted to. Besides them, and the occasional all-nighter scientists, he was all alone here. Well, alone except the inhabitants of the tanks, but fish didn’t judge, neither did turtles or sharks or anything here, really.

The solitude of the closed institute after everyone got home was wonderful – it gave his thoughts a chance to catch up with him.

Except when his brain refused to cooperate, like now.

It was completely  _ normal _ , according to his therapist, but it didn’t make it less infuriating.

He should come up with something for that assignment tonight so he could start to actually write it, or at least present the title tomorrow to the professor, but his mind drew a blank and he was sure even a trash can would be more creative than he was right now.

Maybe if he mopped the floor again? But he already did that. And his college courses had started to get busy with all kinds of essays and tests, and he should use the free time to work on those, not just wandering around and talking to himself like he usually did.

He sighed, put the pen and paper down on the ground and turned around, facing his favorite tank he had lean against until now.

“Hello, darlin’,” he said, brushing his fingers over the smooth glass, careful not to tap on it. The merman didn’t like tapping, but lately, he seemed to get accustomed of Bucky touching the glass as long as it didn’t make a sound. Also, after three months, Bucky had to draw the conclusion that the creature  _ liked his voice. _ At least, it showed itself nine out of ten times when Bucky talked, and remained hidden three out of ten if he was quiet.

(He might have made tally marks on his prosthetic to come up with the statistics.)

“Wanna come out or do you prefer if I leave you alone tonight? You know I completely understand if you want to be left alone, the visitors are probably stressful enough all day, gaping at you like the dumbfucks they are. Okay, that’s not fair, some of the kids are actually pretty cool, but most of them are dragged here by the teacher and they’re not interested at all and just want to see the wonder for three seconds then go on with their lives unchanged and that’s kinda sad if you think about it.”

He was rambling, not like it mattered.

Scientists did tests and measurements and experiments. If the merman was lured by human voices, they would know and publish it. Why wouldn’t they? Everyone wanted to know just how much the merman was similar to humans.

According to the information available, the inner body structure was pretty similar. There were a few differences – smaller lungs, for example, since the gills took up some of the respiratory system, and different bloodwork and the lack of vocal cords were just a few examples. It looked human, though, if one didn’t look below the waistline. The muscles, the bone structure, the face. The merman was a sight straight out of an Andersen tale, ready to get legs and walk among humans anytime.

And despite scientific proof against the theory, it was lured out by Bucky’s voice.

Bucky smiled up at the creature. “There you are, doll.”

The merman showed one of its crooked, curious smiles, then spotted the notebook at Bucky’s feet. He swam to the bottom of the tank immediately, examining the object from up close.

Bucky wasn’t even surprised. It was a curious creature, after all. He picked up the notebook and showed it. “I have some assignments for college. Can’t come up with anything. I think I’m giving up for tonight,” he explained slowly, not sure if it there was any point, but not wanting to pass up on the chance that it  _ could _ understand him.

The mer looked so much like a human. It clearly wasn’t stupid either, not only because it performed well in the scientific experiments but because Bucky witnessed the mer’s intelligence himself already. It wasn’t too far-fetched to think it understood more of its environment than people generally assumed. Maybe they were just testing the wrong things. After all, no one can judge fish on how good they are at tree-climbing.

Of course, Bucky wasn’t stupid either and was very much aware that it was more wishful thinking than truth. Science didn’t lie. Numbers and laboratory experiments didn’t lie.

The merman performed at the level of something between an octopus and a dolphin in intelligence tests.

The merman stared at Bucky with a death glare right now.

The familiar mental poke grew stronger, pounding on his hastily constructed defenses and Bucky’s breath hitched.

“You?” he whispered, barely audible, lips suddenly numb by the possibility.

The merman tilted its head, the pounding piped down into poking again, and after a few seconds that felt like an eternity,  _ the merman nodded. _

Bucky’s thoughts were stuck on a loop of  _ hoooly shit holy shit holy shit _ for a while.

The merman tapped on the glass a few times, almost impatient, its fins wriggling like a nervous cat’s tail in a distressing situation.

“Holy shit,” Bucky said out loud too.

The merman stopped, gave an undecipherable look, then with two strong movements of its tail it swam away.

Or…  _ he _ swam away?

“Wait!” Bucky pulled himself together too late and the merman didn’t return, didn’t even look back. “I’m… sorry?” Bucky said. He had no idea what he was apologizing for, but he was sure he somehow offended the creature. With something.

Bucky rubbed his forehead and stayed close to the tank the whole night, but the merman didn’t show up again.

***

[Day 114]

It took him a fitful day’s sleep to actually process what might have happened and it made him sit up on his bed abruptly, and he stared at the wall for long minutes.

The death glare the merman leveled Bucky with. The way it sometimes seemed to react to things Bucky never said. The mental pokes on his defenses.

Everyone assumed the creature wasn’t intelligent or wasn’t operating on a human-level consciousness because… because. He had no idea anymore.

The merman probably was operating  _ at a higher level _ .

Bucky slumped back on his pillows.

“Holy shit,” he said again. “The merman is psychic.”

He wasn’t sure he was able to go back to work the next night with this discovery.

He was going to miss an assignment deadline and emailed the professor asking if he could get a delay due to work-related reasons.

Which… wasn’t exactly a lie.

After he was sure he couldn’t sleep more, he got up and called Doctor Erskine.

Erskine had been Steve’s doc first and caught on to Bucky only by accident when Bucky went to pick up Steve from an appointment, sometime in their early teens, when Steve still was sick enough that their Ma’s didn’t want him to wander around alone. The Doctor hadn’t met Bucky before and reached to shake his hand – Bucky had been amused by the fact he was treated like an adult – and the moment their skin brushed Bucky was gutted by the Doctor’s sadness and gasped for air despite his best efforts.

Turned out Doctor Erskine had some empathic abilities too, and he had explained what being an empath meant.

Since psychic abilities hadn’t been and still weren’t scientifically accepted, it had been a huge relief to hear that stuff from an actual, certified, practicing and well-respected doctor.

Doctor Erskine had taught Bucky how to shield himself from every kind of unwanted input, how to hide his abilities when he needed to and how to use them when he deemed it beneficial to do so. He shared tips and tricks and techniques, but he also shared his moral insight about situations, about ethical discussions like if it was okay for the doctor himself to use his gift to understand his patients better or not. Bucky, so far, had been living according to those guidelines.

But even a man like Doctor Erskine probably wasn’t prepared for a late afternoon call from Bucky opening with “I think the merman is an intelligent creature with psychic abilities and he’s being kept in prison.”

***

[Night 317]

Bucky was moody to begin with – the phantom pain of his lost arm didn’t want to cease and he had no idea what caused it – so he wasn’t in a chatty mood. He eyed the oily fingerprints on the glass of Tony’s tank critically.

“One day someone should teach those nuggets some respect for privacy,” he grumbled, offended on Tony’s behalf. Why would people think tapping on the glass would make sea creatures come to them? Sure, Tony knew morse code, but one, he was the exception in this regard too and two, visitors naturally didn’t know about that.

Tony watched Bucky and listened to his running grumbling commentary with wordless amusement.

After a while, Bucky stopped and simply pushed his hand on the glass, listening for a while.  _ “Why isn't your water circulator running?” _ he asked, or more like demanded to know. He preferred never to speak technical questions out loud, in case anyone walked in at the wrong moment. It had never happened before – the institute was blessedly abandoned at these hours, thankfully.

_ “Something’s stuck in it,” _ Tony shrugged at the question, swimming closer finally after keeping his distance the last few hours.  _ “I would’ve fixed it but I couldn’t do it in front of an audience and then I couldn’t really reach it so I guess I’ll wait for them.” _

Bucky bit his lips. “Tony, this hasn’t been working for at least the last few days.”

He noticed it beforehand and now that Tony was in front of him, he really could see that the lack of the water circulator left its mark on him as well. His scales were less shiny than usual, he had dark circles under his eyes and his gills worked more, their movements giving the impression of shallow breathing.

Bucky wanted to scream.

“Fuck that,” he said, and marched out to get some tools. He didn’t have much, just a very basic set, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to let his friend suffer, now would he?

When he came back, with a dry towel and a bag in his hand, he simply hauled the whole toolset into the water. “Watch out,” he warned, sarcasm audible in his voice, knowing full well he couldn’t hit Tony by throwing anything into his tank even if he tried to.

_ “I hope we can fix the circulator so you’ll get a breath of fresh water finally.” _ He toed offhis shoes, yanked his shirts off and started to climb up.

_ “You know… you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met,”  _ Tony said.

Bucky grunted.  _ “Knowing how some of the people you’ve actually met think of the world, I certainly hope so.” _

The water wasn’t just not as fresh, but also colder than usual, and wasn’t that bloody brilliant. Bucky scowled one more time before taking some deep breaths and diving under the surface.

Between the two of them, the circulator was somewhat wobbly but was running again in an hour.

Bucky’s lips were slightly blue by the time he crawled out of the tank.

_ “Thank you, Bucky,” _ Tony said.

Bucky, who was trying to dry his hair, smirked at him without much happiness.  _ “Don’t thank me, bubbles. Something like this shouldn’t have happened in the first place.” _

***

[Night 114]

After the discrovery and the conversation with Doctor Erskine, Bucky arrived at work that night with a pocket full of possibly useful tools and a lot of questions to figure out.

He avoided the merman room until he was finished with the other exhibitions, but he couldn’t afford to not clean up there two days in a row, as much as he wished he could.

When he finally got around, he headed straight to the tank. “You awake, doll? Do you want to show yourself today? I’d like to see you. I’d like to talk to you.”

The more he had thought about it, the more he was convinced the merman had been wanting, for some unfathomable reason, to communicate with him for a long time. Maybe since the first day, or close enough, so he hoped it – it? was that an acceptable pronoun anymore? – would still be willing to give it a try.

Bucky didn’t know how the creature’s mind worked, how many similarities he could expect to human behavior. He had read all the  _ papers _ , but that was different. And how many things were missing from those? Of course scientists would never think to test psychic abilities since psychic abilities didn’t exist according to science, but still…

Bucky was confused and nervous, and actually jumped a little when the merman appeared between two tall rocks and swam toward him at breakneck speed, halting gracefully inches away from the glass, bubbles stirred up around him. “Woah,” Bucky breathed out, “you’re really eager today.”

The mental touch didn’t feel gentle this time – it felt impatient. Bucky sighed.

“I’ve never done something like this before, doll. We’ll have to be careful. I don’t want either of us harmed, okay?”

He practiced his ability a lot, but the merman was a different case on many levels. For starters, Bucky had always been a touch-based empath. Never felt anyone without physical contact before, and he was pretty  sure he had never touched the merman before.

He also never practiced with fellow psychics other than Doctor Erskine. There was a soldier in their unit who Bucky had been sure was a foreteller, but both of them had been very careful to avoid touching each other.

Basically, Bucky avoided touching anyone aside from his family and Steve. He kept tight control of his abilities when he couldn’t help brushing against someone, but he caught glimpses here and there from other people nonetheless. Handshakes, friendly half-hugs and such were hard to avoid, and more often than not Bucky freaked out because of what he saw once he got the chance to perceive the impulses.

He touched the hematite in his pocket customized especially to dial down his ability. It was reassuring to know that even if something went awry or the merman’s influence became too much, all he had to do was to reach for it, and the crystal would helpfully tune it down to manageable levels until Bucky got back in control.

In response to Bucky’s words, the merman nodded and the mental touch became a gentle caress in its nature.

“Okay, doll, I’ll put my hand on the glass, and I’ll lower my defenses. Hopefully, we’ll meet in the middle, if that’s okay for you?”

Another nod came, and Bucky did as he promised. He let go of the hematite and lowered the height of the walls around his mind, closed his eyes and pictured water spilling through above them as the world’s input seeped through, made little cracks here and there as he pushed bricks out of place.

The merman reached out for him and cradled Bucky’s senses. His fins spread out, his eyes shone and the glow of the thing in his chest grew more and more intense until Bucky had to squint. The merman’s emotional presence felt warm, carefully warm, like cuddling in a hot tub, like drinking tea on a chilly autumn afternoon.

_ ‘Hellooooo!’  _ an eagerly excited greeting screamed in his head.

Bucky choked and slammed his fist to his pocket and scrambled back, heart pounding like drums, and he yanked his defenses back to full height.

The merman also recoiled sharply, and it  _ blushed _ , bright red color on both his cheeks and Bucky hiccupped. “Oh my god,” he said. “Oh my god, you’re  _ talking.” _

The creature pouted, and seemed, all in all, quite offended. Bucky closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm his vicious heartbeat.

He stepped back to his initial place. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ve just… never actually  _ talked _ to anyone this way.” He was an empath, not a telepath. He got to sense feelings, not actual thoughts.

This time, it was the merman who placed its hand on the glass. The light in its chest started brightening again.

Bucky opened up himself again, and this time the voice in his head wasn’t yelling.

_ “You’re finally hearing me? Please say you finally hear me. You have such a thick skull.” _

Bucky swallowed hard. “Uh,” he said. “Yeah, I think I hear you. Or I’ve lost my mind. Jury’s out.”

_ “Awesome!”  _ The merman smiled, almost as bright as the thing in his chest glowed.

Suddenly Bucky was sure the appropriate pronoun was  _ he _ and that he was called  _ Tony _ and he was too excited to dial his enthusiasm down for long.

“Uh, nice to meet you, Tony. I’m Bucky.”

_ “I knooow,” _ Tony swam left and right and seemed like he was bouncing now that they talked.  _ “Been looking at you from the start.” _

Good to know he had a stalker.

_ “I’m not a stalker,” _ Tony frowned.

Bucky mirrored his expression. “You hear all of my thoughts?”

_ “Not all,” _ Tony shook his head.  _ “Strong ones. Or better to say… ones that are attached to strong feelings. You’re very emotion-driven, aren’t you?” _

He wouldn’t phrase it like that.

“My psychic ability is emotion-based,” he corrected.

_ “That explains a lot!” _ Tony was yelling again and Bucky winced. He wasn’t used to this, someone else in his head. It felt wrong, but at the same time, it didn’t.  _ “I tried to contact people a lot at first, but they never responded. I worried that every one of you was just rude. But the others probably just weren’t able, then.” _

“Probably,” Bucky agreed. “Scientists usually don’t believe this stuff.”

Tony blew bubbles.

That’s how they started to talk.

***

[Night 201]

Later, when he thought about that night, he couldn’t remember what had lead to it, or how it had happened at all. He only remembered the way Tony had rested his hands and chin on the edge of his tank, a few feet above Bucky, looking down at him as he had worked quietly but effectively. The smell of disinfectant and the shimmering lights on the waterdrops of Tony’s skin and the quiet murmur of the nightly aquarium life around them, when Tony asked him out of the blue,  _ “Why don’t you join me, Bucky?” _

Bucky nearly tripped on his own feet. “Wha-at?” he stuttered out, staring up at him. Tony’s smile was wide and genuine, and his thoughts conveyed a chuckle.

_ “You can swim, right?” _

“Well, technically…” Bucky still wasn’t over his shock. “Definitely not like you though.”

Tony laughed.  _ “No human can swim like me, silly.” _

Bucky didn’t doubt that. “I mean, that is your home,” he said, “at least for now.”

Tony quirked an eyebrow.  _ “And?” _

_ “I— Is that okay? I mean, it’s your… personal space, and I didn’t think you’d like anyone there.” _ Bucky remembered articles that discussed the merman’s territorial behavior and how sometimes it reacted aggressively to people going into its tank.

Since he knew Tony, Bucky thought those articles were bullshit. He couldn’t imagine Tony attacking anyone: he was always so happy to have people around, to be in the center of attention. But still it was hard to shake off the things Bucky had thought he’d known about Tony before he actually got to know him.

The offer was more than tempting. 

Bucky kind of imagined what it would be to swim with Tony – but it was one thing when it was wishful thinking and another when it was reality. In a pretty fantasy, Bucky was able to swim with Tony in the endless ocean as Tony introduced him to the aquatic life, and they had nothing to worry about. In reality, however, Bucky was just a janitor in an aquarium, and he was pretty sure anyone seeing him casually taking a bath in an exhibition’s tank would be a sure way to get himself fired. Not to mention how  _ rude _ it felt, to invade Tony’s space like this, even if he was invited. Tony had practically zero personal space, he was always in front of peoples’ curious gaze, the only thing left for him was that even scientists avoided actually joining him in the water.

Swimming with him felt like… like ruining the last defense Tony had.

Bucky didn’t want to ruin anything for Tony.

Tony’s face fell flat, and Bucky felt like he had been gutted as disappointment washed through them.  _ “It’s okay,”  _ Tony lied,  _ “I get it.” _

“Tony, WAIT!”

The connection between them was cut abruptly – for the first time ever, it was Tony who ended their link completely, much to Bucky’s horrid shock. He choked on air as he lunged to the tank, pounding on the glass. “Please!”

But Tony was already out of sight and didn’t answer. Bucky couldn’t help but call up Tony’s devastating disappointment again and again, during the night and also when he was tossing and turning in his bed during, unable to sleep at all.

***

[Day 202]

“Apologize and make up with him,” Natasha advised. She was the only one from his unit that Bucky kept in touch with regularly. Also the only one he talked with about Tony.

“I don’t even know where I fucked up,” he huffed to the phone.

“Does that even matter?” Natasha’s laugh was soft as velvet. “He clearly didn’t get your reasoning so you have to explain yourself anyway.”

“I hate when you’re right.”

“That’s a lie, zvezda moya. You’d always have to hate me for it to be true.”

“Narcissist.”

“Doesn’t change that I’m right. Again.” There was a bit of pause. “And I think you know what went wrong, you just don’t recognize it yet.”

Later that evening, before he could change into his work clothes, Stan stopped him in the corridor. “The Viper wants to talk to you,” he warned Bucky, and Bucky couldn’t help but grimace at the possibility.

They dubbed the head of HR department either as Viper or as Madame, because she sometimes acted like the whole institute was her brothel, and not in a good sense of the word. Miss Sarkissian was, in short, a little bitch.

“Great,” Bucky grimaced again and accepted the sympathetic backpat from Stan as he made his way to the HR office.

“Mr. Barnes,” the woman greeted him with exactly zero warmth in her voice, “I’m sorry I had to ask for you. We’ve received complaints in regard to your work.”

Bucky’s stomach clenched, but his face remained emotionless as he accepted the handshake and was again hit by the very focused malice in the Madame. She was good at what she did, because she was, by all means, a psychopath who didn’t care about people or their feelings. Which was both a blessing and a curse from an empath’s viewpoint. On one hand, the woman was plain and simple and didn’t give him a headache to figure out. On the other, she was also something that made Bucky want to throw up from her lack of compassion.

But this was not the time to muse about psychic abilities when he was, it seemed, in trouble.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he answered evenly. He had faced active combat zones for years; he wasn’t intimidated by his pseudo-boss. But he was afraid of being fired, because that would mean losing his most prominent contact to Tony, and the time spent together each night, and Bucky treasured that more than anything else nowadays. “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”

Viper nodded. “I’m sure you’re right. But anyhow, we’ll monitor your work closely in the future, so we’ll be able to decide if the situation needs any intervention or not. I’m sure we won’t find anything, since your first six month’s supervision was stellar.”

“Thank you, I appreciate the warning,” Bucky said, and smiled politely at the woman as her irritation flared up for not acknowledging the meeting as the threat it was meant to be.

He resisted the urge to glance back as he walked out of the office.

He couldn’t go and start a serious, time-consuming conversation with Tony after this, no matter how much he wanted to clarify yesterday’s incident. Not as long as he couldn’t be sure that they weren’t watched.

Bucky had no doubt that any leeway would be used to get him fired.

He had to avoid the merman exhibition until he could talk to Stan about this new monitoring protocol.

***

[Night 258]

_ “Bucky!” _ Tony called out while he was mopping the floor in front of a hermit crab’s tank, at the other end of the building. Bucky was nearly knocked out by the sheer force of the cry.

He tore down his own mental walls in an instant.  _ “Tony! What’s wrong?” _ He dropped the mop and was sprinting toward the merman exhibition before he realized he moved.

Tony felt… excited. Afraid. In pain. But still excited.

Bucky couldn’t understand this mixture of feelings, and it terrified him. How could Tony be excited while he was in pain? It made zero sense.

By the time he halted, Tony was in front of the glass wall as well, and he lifted both of his hands forward.  _ “Look what I’ve got!” _

On his wrists he wore some strange… things. They looked like bracelets? No, more like cuffs – thick and metallic and there were little led lights on both, blinking with eerie red.

“What the hell are those?” Bucky scowled, not bothering with reducing himself to only mental communication now that they were in front of each other. He tried to examine the information he received from Tony – tried to catalogue the feelings like parting peas and peel. Tony was practically vibrating in front of him.

_ “They are electronic!” _ Tony announced with a bright smile. Bucky was already aware of that – the little spams running through Tony’s muscles not only indicated they were electronic, but that they were malfunctioning as well.

_ Hopefully _ malfunctioning. The other option – that someone put a fucking cuff on Tony to electrocute him on purpose – was even worse.

His scowl was probably just as telling as the disgust he felt, because Tony’s bright smile fade away.

_ “You’re not happy,”  _ he said, and pulled away from the glass.

Bucky stepped forward.  _ “Don’t,”  _ he called, and stopped himself. Words weren’t always successful with Tony – he tended to… interpret them differently. More creatively, often.  _ “Look again, doll,”  _  he asked instead, and let Tony feel his rage over the carelessness, but also the worry Bucky felt for him, the dread of the possibility someone might’ve hurt Tony. He let himself relive the moment when Tony yelled and he dropped everything in panic to get here in time, to help him. He let Tony sense the elevated heart rate, the inner shaking that took over him every time Bucky was startled, courtesy of that damn PTSD.

He let Tony see that he was happy for his joy, but wasn’t happy with the device that caused it.

Tony hesitated for a second, then swam back to his initial place.  _ “Why do you think it’s bad? It’s working. It measures my life signals and transmit the data to their computers. It’s useful for them.” _

Bucky swallowed back bile. He loved how excited Tony could be for human technology.

“It shouldn’t hurt you, doll,” he said quietly, trying to force calm on himself and failing. His voice, with what he aimed for neutrality, was icy instead. “You shouldn’t feel it at all, other than the touch and weight.”

_ “It’s not hurting me,” _ Tony protested.  _ “A bit uncomfortable, sure, but not hurting. Doesn’t cause any lasting injuries.” _

Bucky pushed his hand to his eyes.  _ “That’s not the point, Tony. Anything that’s even slightly uncomfortable is unacceptable. They are your caretakers while you’re here, they should prioritize your wellbeing above anything.” _

Tony pouted.  _ “But it’s for science,” _ he said.

Bucky stepped in front of Tony and touched his forehead to the glass.  _ “That’s really not an excuse, Tony.” _ He sensed Tony’s bafflement as he tried to puzzle out what Bucky meant, and suddenly Bucky felt tired and small. Here it was the most awesome creature currently known to mankind, a capable, intelligent, wonderful man, and this man wasn’t able to understand that he could, potentially, be more important than some stupid science experiment.

He had no idea how to convince Tony of the opposite, if neither his sincere thoughts nor his honest emotions did the trick.

Tony leaned his forehead to the glass from the other side. It was nice – almost like real touch.  _ Almost _ .

_ “You’re biased,” _ Tony said quietly.

_ “Maybe,”  _ Bucky agreed with a shrug,  _ “but that doesn’t change that I’m right.” _

He wasn’t sure of many things in life anymore, but he was sure of this. Tony was way, way more important than science, than human curiosity, than human greed.

Tony tilted his head to the side, and his smile became soft at the edges, the slight wrinkles around his eyes more prominent.

_ “I’m fine, Bucky.” _

Bucky wasn’t sure, but how could he argue with a statement like this?  _ No you’re not? _ He wasn’t sure, of course, but he suspected belittling Tony’s opinion wouldn’t be a good route in this case.

Tony’s chest glowed up. The connection between them was cut off abruptly for a few minutes. When it was restored, Bucky couldn’t feel the slight electricity anymore from Tony.

_ “See? I’m fine.” _

He just stared back at Tony.  _ “I guess.” _ What happened?

Tony didn’t answer the mute question.

***

[Night 147]

Bucky took deep breaths, preparing himself. He didn’t have anything to protect him this time. Bucky didn’t mind the crystals and the occasional cuts they caused between their connection, but Bucky was annoyed and wanted to be better. They practiced. And it was about to be the first night where Bucky tossed every tool and accessory in the bin and wing this on his own.

_ “Hello, bubbles.” _

He planned to go without saying a word out loud this time. Just for the practice – he didn’t plan to do this on a regular basis, firstly because it promised to be exhausting, and secondly because Tony liked listening to Bucky’s voice.

_ “You came!” _ Tony never ceased to be excited. Bucky smiled up at him.

_ “Of course. I’m always here, am I not?” _

Tony frowned a bit.  _ “You don’t always come here immediately.” _

_ “I have to do my job. If they fire me, I won’t be allowed to come at all.” _ He put his hand on the glass.  _ “Well, except the visiting hours, but I prefer to see you when there aren’t a thousand shrieking kids around.” _

Tony did a backflip in the water.  _ “I like kids,” _ he confessed.  _ “I often talk to them.” _

Bucky gaped at him.  _ “You know they can get in trouble if they mention that to an adult?” _

_ “No, no. It’s my secret with them,” _ Tony shook his head firmly.  _ “They’re smart offsprings. I don’t just talk to anyone.” _

_ “Well, you’re talking to me,” _ Bucky grinned, and he had a hard time not to get dizzy as he watched Tony practically dancing as he swam around, bouncing and twisting. He splashed the surface with his fin, leaving bubbles at his wake.

_ “Yes, truly a mistake on my part,” _ Tony smirked back between two flips.  _ “Come in next Thursday at four, Peter will be back that time. He comes each Thursday. He’s very talented.” _

Bucky eased into the conversation as Tony praised this random kid more, waxing poetic about the teen’s academic interests and mental abilities. It didn’t matter whether Bucky got busy sweeping the floor or not, Tony was able to talk with such enthusiasm that Bucky actually craved to get to know this Peter, to meet him and discuss scientific theories and psychic possibilities as well. From Tony’s description, it had been obvious that the kid had something in him that fell under the scope of the paranormal, otherwise Tony wouldn’t be this invested. Non-psychic people still were out of his reach, no matter how impressive they were.

Bucky tried to avoid thinking about how different Tony’s experiences could’ve been with humans if this wasn’t the case and he could talk to everyone.

Well, he was pretty sure not everyone would appreciate that scenario either, since Tony had a tendency to ramble away for hours, something Bucky loved about him. But like it or not, people would’ve been forced to acknowledge Tony’s intelligence in that scenario. They couldn’t imprison him with a clear conscience in that case.

Of course, Tony’s position was kind of shady in many people’s eyes already – some activists still organized rallies to free him, protesting against the treatment of the only known merman and demanding basic human rights for him.

_ “Why are you here, Tony?” _ Bucky asked suddenly, as he realized he hadn’t been paying attention for a while, lost in his own thoughts.

Tony stopped and stared at him. His scales shifted uncomfortably. Bucky observed this already. When Tony felt nervous, his fish-skin signed his frame of mind like the fur on Natasha’s cat: the scales standing on edge or smoothing out according to his mood.

_ “Kind of obvious, isn’t it?”  _ Tony opened his arms, incorporate the whole scenery around them with the gesture.

_ “You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. Why did you let them capture you?” _ Bucky specified his question, rolling his eyes.

Tony swam in and out of a small tunnel under a rock, one that was almost bruising him as he squirmed through it.

_ “I was…” _ he hesitated, then turned up and looked at Bucky from behind the rock.  _ “I was curious of humans.” _ He honest to god blushed in front of Bucky’s bewildered stare.  _ “I guess I wanted to make friends.” _

Bucky couldn’t say anything for a good minute, opening then closing his mouth again.  _ “Hold on. You… deliberately tangled yourself in a fishing net and got captured and now you live in captivity because you… because you  _ **_wanted to make friends._ ** _ ” _

Tony nodded and ducked behind the rock. Bucky rubbed his face.

_ “I take it back. You can’t be the smartest person I’ve ever met and still be this stupid.” _

Sadly, that was not how it worked, and they both knew that.

***

[Night 204]

It took several long and excruciating nights of trial and error and working closely with Stan to figure out the system. The first night had been eerily quiet and Bucky had been missing Tony’s voice and had hated every second of work.

The second night he felt the gentle poking from Tony, careful and soft whispering of his name in his own head. Tony felt so insecure and hesitating, his voice barely more than a tickle, and Bucky wanted to cry.  _ “I’m here, bubbles,” _ he send his thoughts from another room,  _ “I’m close and I miss you.” _

_ “Come over,” _ Tony asked,  _ “I’ll make up for it, just let’s talk. I didn’t want to offend you.” _

It broke Bucky’s heart, but he couldn’t allow that to himself yet. He knew that if anyone saw him interacting with Tony the way they usually did, both of them would be in trouble.

He didn’t mind trouble on himself, but risking Tony was out of the question.

_ “I can’t go yet, Tony,” _ he said, and bit his tongue in the hope that the physical pain would dull the emotional one.  _ “I’m not mad, I miss you, I wish I could go, but we’ll have to be patient for a bit more.” _

Oh how strange it was, to feel Tony this way in his head, to sense his emotions this clearly despite the distance. Bucky had never been in a connection like this with anyone. He never imagined it was even possible. Before he had come here, his best attempts had been feeling others emotions while touching them. Now he didn’t need to even look at Tony.

Okay, sure, it was partially because Tony wasn’t entirely human to begin with, but that was only  _ one part _ . There was more than that. There was trust, and care, and love, and some deep level of understanding, and…

Instead of saying anything else, Bucky let Tony feel what he felt.

Neither of them closed the link between them, neither of them put up walls to stop the flow, despite not saying any words through the night.

***

[Day 276]

The trips to the fish market became regular.

Bucky wasn’t sure why Tony wasn’t fed properly, if it was cruel experiment on their part or simple negligence, but in all honesty he didn’t give a rat’s ass about it. He wasn’t about to let Tony starve.

So his grocery shopping started to include a bypass to the docks to fill up with fresh fish.

Bucky grimaced only slightly as he put them away. Tony was going to love the herring.

***

[Night 206]

Of course by the time Bucky was able to go and talk to Tony, Tony decided not to show up for him.

_ “It’s fine,”  _ Tony spit through the connection when Bucky tried to lure him out,  _ “I understand you were busy.” _

Bucky felt helpless on his regard, but he also felt the hurt from Tony, how scared and disappointed he was when Bucky seemingly abandoned him, and right after an argument of sorts.

Bucky did his nightly cleaning tasks as quick as humanly possible, narrating his every move through it, then he set everything aside, and sat down in front of Tony’s tank.

“I can wait,” he said, soft and quiet, “I can wait as long as you need me to.”

They didn’t talk that night.

Nor the night after that, or the one after.

***

[Night 209]

Tony waited for Bucky just behind the glass when Bucky arrived.  _ “You really are patient,” _ Tony started, but stopped right there, unsure what else to say, to share.

Bucky shrugged.  _ “There are things worth the wait.” _

_ “And you think I’m one of those things?” _

Bucky smiled, and let the warmth spread over both of them.  _ “Honestly, bubbles, you’re worth even more.” _

Tony swam to the bottom and flopped down there.  _ “I missed you,”  _ he admitted.

Bucky smiled wide and didn’t hide how much the statement meant to him.  _ “I missed you too.” _

***

[Night 411]

Bucky wasn’t sure if he was proud of himself or disappointed for not snapping earlier. He stood by and didn’t intervene actively as Tony’s conditions worsened.

He quietly took to subtly chasing down technicians whenever some equipment needed repairs, but didn’t file complaints because Tony asked him not to. He bought fish regularly but never looked for the people whose job it would’ve been to do so, because the first time he tried, the boy was just as outraged as Bucky and spat venom about ridiculous budget cuts and batch orders. He turned up the temperature of Tony’s tank whenever he passed by the thermostat, only to find it turned down again later.

He did what he could and let everything else slip under the table, but there were things even Tony couldn’t convince him to overlook.

When he found Tony with handprints bruised on his arm and a lateral fin that looked suspiciously broken, Bucky was fed up with swallowing his concerns.

But he also knew he couldn’t turn his rage outward in front of Tony, because Tony drew back whenever Bucky even just raised his voice. So Bucky turned away and took deep breaths and shielded himself even from Tony until he was sure he was under control and he wouldn’t lash out.

Then he reached out for Tony, both mentally and physically as he pushed his palm on the glass between them.  _ “Sweetheart, this can’t go on anymore.”  _ He didn’t plan to sound as exasperated as he did, but it was still better than other options.  _ “Are you really expecting me to just watch as they torture you?” _

Tony this time was just as cautious with his emotions as Bucky. His smile was wide and painfully fake.  _ “It’s hardly any more than an inconvenience, Bucky. You’re just dramatic.” _

Tony’s bravado might’ve been endearing any other time, but right now it just fueled Bucky’s ire.

_ “I’m absolutely not dramatic,”  _ Bucky assured Tony with a grin that was more teeth than anything else, and he paid careful attention to preserve his fake composure. _ “I could talk about dramatics, I was raised next to Steve Rogers. No, bubbles, it’s not dramatics when I say this can’t go on anymore and they can’t – they shouldn’t treat you this way, and I’m going to stop them.” _

_ “Bucky what are you—” _

_ “Now if you excuse me, I’ll have to go and organize some things,”  _ Bucky leaned his forehead to the glass for a few seconds, but then he pushed himself away and walked out to get busy.

Because... No. 

This was wrong on so many levels.

It was bad enough when the harm was done to his living environment, which wasn’t nearly as nice as Tony would deserve, so the least the aquarium could and should do was maintaining the circumstances they established beforehand. But they took it a step further and started to harm  _ Tony himself? _ It was beyond infuriating. More so if he counted that at least half of the place's income was generated by earth’s only captured merman’s presence here. Management was full of ungrateful bastards.

Bucky personally couldn't care less about money when it came to Tony, but the people who worshipped dollar bills should've anyway, especially if Tony's wellbeing was at risk.

Bucky hadn’t spent all his life before this standing up to bullies, both at Steve’s side and on his own, to let this injustice just go on without taking steps against it.

Even if he didn’t have the power to make them pay for it, to make them feel the same harm they’d caused others, he could at least stop them. In his own way.

He called sick and started to make calls even before he left the building.

“Hey, Stevie, I need your help. You’ll love this.”

***

[Night 211]

Bucky honestly had no idea anymore what Stan might think of him and his occasional strange requests, but it didn’t really matter, because Stan never asked questions and always sided with Bucky. As much as Bucky itched to know the reason why, he couldn’t start asking questions without being asked in return, so he decided he didn’t need to pry as long as it worked.

After Bucky was done with everything else, he headed to the merman exhibition and kicked off his shoes right at the door.

_ “Whoa,”  _ Tony commented with a smile in his mental voice,  _ “someone’s really eager.” _

_ “Shut up, _ ” Bucky blushed, but he was wriggling out of his shirt already.

_ “It’s not like I’m complaining,” _ Tony mused.  _ “If you want to convince me that—holy shit.” _

Bucky stopped.

Tony was staring at his arm. His left arm, the wooden prosthetic Bucky wore to hide the fact he was missing a limb, the useless dead weight at his side because he couldn’t afford – or, more precisely, didn’t want to waste money on – a high-tech version.

For a few moments, they were both motionless, Bucky’s heart was suddenly pounding wildly. Tony knew of his disability – he never thought Tony would be surprised, or would mind his deficiency.

He swallowed hard, but before he could get too upset, he realized the emotions coming from Tony weren’t of disgust or disappointment.

He was… surprised, yes. Maybe even shocked. But he was also fascinated, and outraged, and curious, and upset all at once.

Bucky took a deep breath, and slowly stepped closer, letting his shirt fall to the ground, and turning so that he left side was toward Tony.

_ “Why?” _ Tony finally asked, oh so quiet and soft.

Bucky didn’t understand.  _ “Why what?” _

_ “Why didn’t they give you a better replacement? It’s not even attached to your nervous system. It’s just… it’s not even…” _ Tony shook his head in disbelief.  _ “They let you struggle without a proper one?” _

Bucky stared at him, anger and bewilderment rising in his guts.  _ “You think I’m a cripple because I can’t afford a better prosthetic?” _

_ “What?” _ Tony looked him in the eyes, startled and wide-eyed.  _ “No, that’s not what I meant! I just don’t understand. Even if other people are not kind like you, they should help you regain your mobility and, and productivity and, I don’t know why wouldn’t they give one to you.” _

Bucky stood in front of Tony by now, and trailed his right hand’s fingers on the glass.  _ “Those are expensive. And I don’t want to be their guinea pig anyway.” _ He grabbed his left wrist.  _ “I can handle myself.” _

Tony visibly swallowed back all kind of comments, looked away for a second, then back to Bucky. His emotions didn’t tell what more he wanted to say, and Bucky was almost grateful for the ignorance.

The seconds passed.

_ “Well then,” _ Tony said finally,  _ “will you come in here or what?” _

So Bucky went.

The water was just the right temperature that Bucky felt comfortable half-naked as he carefully lowered himself into it. Tony soared a few feet away from him, giving some space for Bucky to accommodate for the environment, but he practically vibrated with excitement, and Bucky couldn’t help but feel the same.

He treaded water for a few seconds, then ducked under. The saltwater stung his eyes and he was far from confident, but he could handle it – he had no need to be wary of a panic attack here, he didn’t have any bad or even war-related experiences with water. Quite the opposite.

He took some deep breaths and even before he could signal, Tony was right next to him, curling his tail fin around Bucky’s tights.  _ “See? You’re okay!”  _ Tony cheered, and Bucky smiled back. Tony’s scales were warm through the fabric of his pants, and Tony reached out and put his hands on Bucky’s hips to pull him closer.

Bucky’s breath hitched, and Tony smiled wider, because both of them knew it wasn’t just startlement – Tony’s skin on his was something Bucky had craved for longer than he dared to admit, and it was absolutely wonderful to finally feel it.

He had expected Tony’s palm to be soft, but it wasn’t: his hold was strong and his skin flickered by calluses and it felt absolutely  _ right _ despite the strangeness.

_ “I’ll take care of you here,”  _ Tony promised as his hand slipped to grab Bucky’s, and he leaned back and untangled his fin.

With barely any motion on his part, Tony gently hauled Bucky in the water, still faster than Bucky could swim on his own accord.

Bucky closed his eyes, Tony’s joy shining in his mind like molten gold, water caressing him and Tony steadily guiding him. It felt perfect, natural. He felt protected and taken care of and light-hearted. He felt protective and appreciated and careful. One belonged to Bucky and one to Tony, but in these moments it was hard to tell the difference. The water around made every sensation soft, and Tony’s presence made everything bright and safe.

Tony turned on his back and pulled Bucky above him, lifting him up enough so he could still breathe freely while the rest if his body was under the surface, and looked up at him with glee.  _ “You look ridiculous, half in and half out,” _ Tony teased.  _ “It suits you.” _ All of his body literally vibrated, and it sounded like a cat was purring of pleasure, and it took Bucky a while to realize it probably was indeed the case: somehow Tony conveyed his state of satisfaction with this whole-body sound he didn’t need vocal chords for.

_ “And you look like a cat that got the cream,” _ Bucky answered, dipping his head underwater to avoid a splash of water in his face.  _ “I like it.” _

After a while – Bucky had no way to tell how much time later – Tony let go of him, and Bucky got the chance to actually swim – he tried his best, and Tony was thoughtful enough to slow down to his pace some of the time. But again and again Tony just got too excited and had to scoot around just to be able not to scream in excitement in their heads.

Bucky loved it, loved the pure and unadulterated joy and that Tony finally acted upon it.

The touches from the time to time, the way their skins brushed together, the way Tony grabbed him again and again made him lightheaded.

He had wished for this for a long time, Bucky realized belatedly, he didn’t want to be separated from Tony by an inexorable glass wall, transparent yet impermeable. He wished, to no avail, to be able to touch Tony, not just mentally but physically too.

Tony’s dopey smile mirrored Bucky’s own expression, just as his emotions mirrored Bucky’s.

For a little while, everything seemed perfect.

It was the best night of his life so far, definitely.

***

[Night 414]

Took some time to arrange everything, but he managed as fast as he could. Steve and Natasha flew in at first call. Steve brought Peggy and Sam with him, and turned out, Natasha knew Clint very well so Clint was in too. He didn’t tell Stan about the plans, but warned him to take a sick leave, because he didn’t want his only work friend to get in trouble if not necessary. (Rumlow, the other guard, could suck his own dick as far as Bucky cared.)

Natasha pulled some strings and collected some favors, so Bucky had been sit down to report everything about the merman’s mistreatment with a journalist she knew, called Virginia ‘call me Pepper’ Potts.

Pepper promised the article to be aired tomorrow, so Bucky figured it was just the perfect time to act upon their plan before the media circus started. They arranged alibis, talked through their roles one more time, and they were all set.

Bucky walked into the institute as confident as he could muster, and heard Tony’s enthusiastic greeting before they could see each other.  _ “Buckyyyyy,”  _  Tony wailed,  _ “You alright? You disappeared!” _

_ “I’m sorry, bubbles,”  _ Bucky smiled and turned the corner to see Tony waiting for him eagerly, nose almost pressed to the glass.  _ “I was busy, but I have good news for you. Well, I hope they’re good.” _

Tony swam left and right, his enthusiasm tinted with anxiety in the face of Bucky’s determination.

_ “I’m breaking you out of here right now.” _

Tony froze and stared at Bucky.

_ “What?”  _ he blinked, trying to process the statement.

_ “They’re hurting you. They’re mistreating you. It’ll blow up in their face tomorrow, but that would possibly backlash to you if you’d still be here at the time. So we’re stealing you and let you go home, or wherever you want to go.” _

Tony slowly descended to the bottom of the tank, folding his tail neatly under himself, and nodded Bucky to sit down as well.

Bucky obeyed. They still had time, he counted on some explanation to be needed at this point.

_ “Why?” _ Tony simply asked.

_ “Because you deserve better than this. I should’ve get you out of this place way sooner. Probably the moment we started to talk.” _

Tony played with some seaweed, twirling it between his fingers as he mused on this, way more calmer than Bucky preferred. He hopes Tony would react with… with a bit more joy, maybe. After all, he was about to get free after years of captivity, if their escape worked according to plans.

_ “You know I was and I am here at my own free will,” _ Tony finally said.

_ “I know you’ve let them capture you on your own accord,” _ Bucky nodded, ignoring the painful clench of his stomach at the thought of his brilliant Tony planning to put himself into harm’s way to get into this shitty situation.  _ “I’m just not sure you’ve got what you bargained for when you imagined your life up here.” _

_ “It’s not that bad here,”  _ Tony protested.

_ “I’ve talked to this journalist who has been investigating for months by now. I bet you didn’t know the management continuously steals money that they supposed to spend on you, and that’s why there isn’t enough food or maintenance for you?” _

Instead of the shock and indignation that Bucky expected to come, Tony only sighed and shrugged.  _ “I’m not surprised. Obadiah stopped playing nice a while ago.” _

Which somehow made the situation even worse.  _ “Tony, why? Why didn’t you tell something? Why didn’t you…?” _

He had to take deep breaths not to risk losing his temper. He reminded himself he had to keep himself in check for Tony, who was shrugging again in front of him.

_ “Why would I? Not like anything would’ve changed. And it’s not half as bad here as you think. I had worse at home. And…” _ There was a brief hesitation, a halt in thoughts, but Tony gathered his courage to finish it. _ “I had you. You are worth it, Bucky.” _

_ “You don’t have to stay here with me, bubbles,”  _ Bucky said, and he suddenly felt almost overwhelmed by the shared feelings,  _ “I’d have run away with you months ago if you just asked. And I want the best for you. This place is not the best. You deserve so much more and better.” _

_ “You’re sweet,”  _ Tony smiled, and the warmth radiating from his emotions made Bucky boneless and relaxed too, finally sharing the eerie calm that settled in Tony after the confession.  _ “You’d really come with me? If I’d ask?” _

_ “Anywhere,” _ Bucky answered without any hesitation or doubt,  _ “where do you want to go?” _

_ “I thought you’re the one who came here to rescue me like a damsel in distress,” _ Tony laughed, and the deep joy echoed in Bucky like the sweetest sound ever despite existing only in his head.

_ “We thought getting you back to the ocean would be the best, but I’m open to any change of plans.” _

Tony nodded, mostly to himself, and unfolded his tail to straighten up.  _ “Come here.” _

_ “Tony, we don’t really have time for—” _ Bucky started.

_ “Come in,”  _ Tony repeated,  _ “please. We have enough time, I promise. I’ll show you something.” _

Bucky glanced to the door, nervousness creeping in on him, but started to pull off his clothes, like the situation wasn’t weirder than their usual shared swim. Once in the water – and fuck, it was cold again – Tony appeared in front of Bucky, their heads poking out of the water.

_ “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” _ Tony said,  _ “and I think you won’t be against it.” _

With this warning, Tony closed his eyes and leaned forward, and Bucky mirrored him, knowing instantly what this meant to be, and yes, he very much wasn’t against it. They met halfway, lips colliding, and it felt like electricity running through his whole body, lighting up the world. Tony’s lips were soft and warm and just a bit salty, and Bucky happily nibbled on them. Through the connection he felt Tony’s awe from the other side, his excitement and wonder over the sweet sweet taste of Bucky. Excitement and arousal buzzed Bucky’s guts as he parted his lips more to let Tony in, to feel Tony’s tongue in his mouth, and it was beyond every imagination ever, Tony holding him, Tony kissing him, Bucky’s hand tracing Tony’s spine and finally palming the perfect curve of Tony’s ass, finally feeling the texture of those scales under his fingertips and…

Bucky had no idea how long it lasted, or if he panted because of the lack of oxygen or the arousal by the time they parted.

_ “Touch my chest,”  _ Tony said, and somehow he also sounded breathless a bit.

Bucky slid his hand up and forward, not hurrying at all, enjoying the skin under his own. He expected to found the barrier as always if someone got too close to the glowing center of Tony’s chest, but instead his palm passed over without resistance, until he felt a cool metallic surface under his fingertips.

He frowned and looked away from Tony’s breathtaking eyes in favor of checking this phenomenon.

The glowing was toned to a level he could, for the first time, actually see what caused it. There sat a strange, circular device right in the middle of Tony’s chest, replacing his sternum, metallic edge and fluorescent, glass-like surface overlayed with flimsy metal threads over it in a delicate pattern.

_ “Whoa,” _ Bucky couldn’t help but say,  _ “it’s…” _

_ Beautiful _ , he wanted to finish, but it didn’t seem enough, because it also seemed deeply embedded in the living flesh of Tony, and Bucky’s mind immediately jumped at the scenarios how could that end up there.

_ “Yeah,” _ Tony agreed, knowing what Bucky meant as always.  _ “It’s a tech storage. Anything I might need while I’m in the surface,”  _ he explained, prompted by Bucky’s obvious curiosity.  _ “Now I’ll need you to stay very still, okay?” _

Bucky looked up at Tony’s face, but already nodded – he trusted Tony, whatever he had in his mind. Tony swam closer, hugged Bucky and wrapped his tail and fins around him, effectively immobilizing him.

Bucky closed his eyes and exhaled.  _ “Okay, bubbles,” _ he said, and relaxed, banishing all doubtful thoughts from his head. He trusted Tony. He really did, and was ready to prove it.

Tony giggled in his head.  _ “You can open your eyes,”  _ Tony allowed, and Bucky did, and…

“HOLY SHIT!”

They weren’t in the aquarium.

They were in the fucking ocean.

The shore was within seeing distance, okay, but every other side there was only endless blue water as long as Bucky could see.

“WHAT THE FUCK.”

Tony was absolutely pleased with himself, that was for sure.

***

[Epilogue - Day 416]

So it had turned out, Tony was able to teleport.

And he had forgotten to mention this tiny little fact earlier.

Bucky was determined to never let him forget this mistake and tease forever and ever about it.

Tony in reply showed Bucky his own shocked and outraged expression when he realized they were in the ocean, accompanied by hysterical laughter.

Of course, the situation wasn’t that easy. Bucky practically organized a whole heist to free Tony, so they first had to make sure the participants didn’t do anything stupid or reckless or both. (That was surprisingly easy, and Bucky received only three different death threats during the process. Tony got more. Very lovingly, of course.) Then came the long-time logistics and further damage control.

And in the end, finally, the planning for the future.

Tony, despite his futuristic chest-implant, still couldn’t pull an Andersen-tale plot twist and grow legs. He still needed water to survive.

But he didn’t insist to live among humans anymore.  _ “I’m thinking about going home and finishing our equivalent of the human’s university,”  _ he said.

Bucky couldn’t bear himself to answer, just nodded.

_ “I mean, I have enough of research material from the last years that I could do a bombastic report of my adventures,”  _ Tony mused.  _ “I think they’d like that.” _

_ “Probably,” _ Bucky forced through a threatening anxiety attack. He wasn’t any good at saying goodbye, but he decided not to fall apart in front of Tony, because that wouldn’t be fair. Tony deserved to go home and be happy, even if that happiness didn’t involve Bucky. Even if it broke him into a million pieces, especially after everything they’ve shared: thoughts, emotions, touches, kisses.

Of course it was more complicated than that and love conquered everything only in fairy tales.

Tony smiled up at Bucky who sat on the dock hanging his feet in the ocean.  _ “I was wondering if you’d like to come with me.” _

Bucky nearly fell into the water.  _ “Yes!” _ He agreed, enthusiastically, even before his mind caught up with him. “ _ Wait, what? How would that even be possible?” _

_ “We have our methods.”  _ Tony’s smile widened. “ _ I also think you’re in dire need of a proper arm, sweetheart.” _

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this story, please leave a comment, this author needs validation! Also consider reading my other fics or visiting [my tumblr](https://menatiera.tumblr.com/) as well! :)
> 
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